Question about Komplete 8 BIG Jump for me.

[songmaster]

Hi everyone I am thinking about taking a big leap and upgrading my home studio. Right now I have Studio One Artist and I like the fact that I can write keyboard , violins etc. I play guitar and I love the Guitar Rig 5 included in the Native Instruments.Also some other features like Evolve and Session Strings Pro. I do have a midi key board but I never really learned to play piano. I guess my question is, would this be a good investment and what other gear would I have to get to really expand to the likes of what I hear from a lot you successful Taxi members. The Studio One is great for learning but the production value seems thin. Right now I have Windows XP and I realize I will have to switch to Windows 7 for the Kontakt 5 engine. If anyone could give me some advice I would really appreciate it. I am mostly aiming for the Film and TV market. Cheers. Tom.

[Cruciform]

Hi Tom.

I'm curious, what do you mean when you say the Studio One "production value seems thin"? I use S1 Pro myself and consider it an excellent, intuitive and very stable DAW. For the record, if you want to use third party VSTs in S1 you will have to upgrade from Artist anyway as it only allows you to use its included instruments and effects.

Komplete 8 is a great value purchase as you get a very wide range of instruments. It won't be a one-stop shop though. As you learn and grow, you'll find yourself wanting to buy additional instruments and effects for specific purposes. For instance, the orchestral instruments included in Kontakt are pretty basic and if you find yourself wanting to do more orchestral work, than you'll end up buying dedicated instruments for that. Since a majority of them are in Kontakt format anyway, you'll still need it!!

Also, download the free Kontakt 5 player and see if it works on your machine. It worked fine for me under XP. It's just that NI don't support it, which means you won't get any help from them if something doesn't work right. Since the user community is more helpful and informative than NI support, that's not much of an issue anyway. So if the player works fine on your machine, then retail Kontakt 5 should be fine. The player allows you to run it as the retail version in 30 min spurts anyway, so you can test it more thoroughly.

Now when you (1) ask "what other gear" and, (2) that you're "aiming for the film and tv market", well..... point 2 covers every genre anyway so you really need to know what styles of music you're wanting to create before researching point 1.

[songmaster]

Hi Rob Thanks for all the great information. I guess as far the production value of Studio One. Lately I have been comparing some of my instrumentals with other Taxi members music and they seem to have a bigger sound. Granted, I have only had Studio One Artist for about 2 months and I am still learning. Also, you answered another question I was wondering about. and that was if I could use my studio as is , or would I have to use another type. ex. Pro Tools etc. That,s what I meant by other gear. So now I know I can upgrade to Studio One Pro. Also, I will try the free Kontakt 5 player upload and see if it works as well as it has on your Windows XP. I love all types of music and it has just been lately that I have started to write instrumental. I guess what it boils down to is that the music I might eventually be doing, might sound like Hans Zimmer meets Ted Nugent. I'm still a little unclear at this point. Anywho, thanks again Rob. I realize that this is a marathon and not a sprint so I will continue to do my research. All the best . Tom.

[rnrmachine]

I have Komplete 8 Ultimate among MANY other plugins and soft synths and I like it and think it was a worth while purchase.

As far as sounding thin... I am willing to bet your problem is not knowing what you are doing more than having the proper programs. Now, that said there is truth in the fact that you will NEED the better programs to get the good thicker sound. Also, IF you are using guitar sims, recording DI into your computer and comparing yourself to someone who is using real amps... you're gonna have a LONG haul before you can even come close to that in a mix. Not so hard IF the guitar is the only thing in the mix.. much harder when you try to add stuff in.

You JUST started so you are in for a LONG haul... a lot of disappointment and a FEW moments of joy. You will beat yourself up again and again as you try to figure out.. HOW the F++K did they get that sound?!

Since you just started, I HIGHLY recommend Komplete 8 BUT only if you are 100% serious and you understand that you will get MANY rejections for MANY reasons. IF you use K8 properly you will get great sounding mixes AND you will learn how to better use the upgrades you will find yourself wanting to get down the road as you master the more simple soft synths. The orchestral stuff in K8 has it's limits, but since you just started.. it's limits are FAR beyond your abilities anyway. You might catch on fast though and need to upgrade early on which would be great, but don't count on it.

Using articulations is VERY important. IF you try to use the same old violin sample, no velocity changes, no articulation changes, no one will want that. IT MIGHT work in electronic/techno/dance though... it really depends. BUT if you are going for realism you have to understand what you are doing before you can do it in a way that will convince anyone of realism.

My final advice is... IF you are still serious about this and are prepared to do this for years before you find ANY success then go buy it and learn each soft synth individually. Learn how to properly play it and IF you can't play it properly then learn how to use it in such a way that it sounds like you played it... IF you do this, then POSSIBLY you will find success.

Good luck in all you do!!!

[Kolstad]

"I do have a midi key board but I never really learned to play piano"

Do you know about midi guitar? You can get an Axon AX 50usb interface and get a Roland GK-2A pickup and play anything in Komplete 8 on a fretboard you are familiar with!

[songmaster]

Thanks everyone for your advice. Obviously, I have a lot to learn about this medium and I am quite willing to spend the time , as time is something I have a lot of lately. Also, even learning Studio One, I have spewed my share of 4 letter words..so that's no problem. This forum is a great way to get information and honesty and I appreciate it all.

Also,Magne Thanks for the advice about the guitar approach. I will have to look into that.

Yesterday, I downloaded the free Kontakt 5 player and demo content. I followed instructions as close as possible. When I opened Kontakt 5 to use it, the instructions said very simply , to enter " demo" into search field to find the demo patches. I have looked for an hour and a half and many 4 letter words to find this legendary " search field " . I even asked my wife to look in case I was overlooking something obvious, still no search field. I guess I am showing my ignorance again, but can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong. I have checked Google and other NI forums and the reference manual and I am still lost.

Anywho, Thanks again for all your advice. Tom.

[mojobone]

Odds are, unless you upgrade to Studio One Pro, you'll only be able to use Kontakt in standalone mode; Studio One Artist won't run VST effects/instruments from other vendors.

The search field is part of Kontakt's user interface; it should be in the left panel, near the top, it's probably labeled "file browser", or similar.

[Dwayne Russell]

Hi everyone I am thinking about taking a big leap and upgrading my home studio. Right now I have Studio One Artist and I like the fact that I can write keyboard , violins etc. I play guitar and I love the Guitar Rig 5 included in the Native Instruments.Also some other features like Evolve and Session Strings Pro. I do have a midi key board but I never really learned to play piano. I guess my question is, would this be a good investment and what other gear would I have to get to really expand to the likes of what I hear from a lot you successful Taxi members. The Studio One is great for learning but the production value seems thin. Right now I have Windows XP and I realize I will have to switch to Windows 7 for the Kontakt 5 engine. If anyone could give me some advice I would really appreciate it. I am mostly aiming for the Film and TV market. Cheers. Tom.

I just got Cubase Atrist for my home studio. I only paid $198 and got a free upgrade to 6.5. I would recommend it.

[CHuckmott]

I considered this, but decided to lay out a bit more money and get a Yamaha MOX6 instead of the KOmplete package. For synth sounds I picked up Omnisphere. With the yamaha, no need to worry about memory issues in the computer, can do it's own sequencing in case something happens to the computer and I have to say the YAmaha sounds make NI sounds seem like toys. And the Yamaha can be picked up for around $900 if you look.

[CHuckmott]

On the other hand, many have noted you may want to buy it for Kontakt alone (or just buy Kontakt) as many 3rd party suppliers of samples write them for Kontakt format.